Chile

Terrorism

During the first five years of the Pinochet regime
(1973-78),
the armed forces and security forces successfully
contained leftwing resistance against the government. Many members of
Chile's
oldest left-wing extremist group, the Movement of the
Revolutionary
Left (Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria--MIR),
which was
founded in 1965 and had close ties to Cuba, were killed or
exiled.
Nevertheless, the MIR remnants, under the leadership of
the late
Salvador Allende's nephew, Andrés Pascal Allende,
continued to
operate a small underground network in Chile. The MIR's
principal
leader, Miguel Enríquez, returned clandestinely to Chile
in 1978 to
revitalize the movement and organize for armed struggle
and was
soon joined by newly infiltrated cadres who had been
trained in
Cuba and Nicaragua. The security forces kept the MIR off
balance,
however, and Enríquez was killed in September 1983.

Several new left-wing terrorist groups emerged in the
early
1980s. One was the United Popular Action Movement-Lautaro
(Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitario-Lautaro--MAPU-L), a
splinter
of the United Popular Action Movement (Movimiento de
Acción Popular
Unitario--MAPU), a party founded in 1969 by a breakaway
group from
the Christian Democrats. Many MAPU leaders embraced
Marxist
positions, but the party was not a terrorist group. In
December
1982, the MAPU-L established a youth group, the Lautaro
Youth
Movement (Movimiento de Juventud Lautaro--MJL), and a
group
dedicated to the overthrow of the military government, the
Lautaro
Popular Rebel Forces (Fuerzas Rebeldes Popular
Lautaro--FRPL).

The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Frente Patriótica
Manuel
Rodríguez--FPMR), an armed group affiliated with the
Communist
Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile--PCCh), was
formed in
1983. In response to increased armed attacks, the regime
promulgated the 1984 Antiterrorist Law, which greatly
expanded the
list of crimes that could be categorized as terrorism.

In the second half of the 1980s, the FPMR became the
dominant
terrorist group, emerging as a sophisticated,
well-trained, and
well-supported terrorist organization. Just how strong it
was
became evident in August 1986 when the security forces
captured a
huge FPMR arms cache that was traced to Cuba. That
September FPMR
commandos nearly succeeded in assassinating Pinochet with
M-16
assault rifles and antitank rockets. In response to these
two
events, Pinochet declared a state of siege and mounted an
offensive
against the FPMR and MIR.

Intensified police and security-service pressure on the
FPMR
and MIR continued throughout 1987, inhibiting the groups'
activities. That year the FPMR splintered as a result of
the PCCh's
denunciation of violence; the breakaway Maoist-oriented
FPMRAutonomous (FPMR-Autónomo--FPMR-A) became the most active
left-wing
terrorist group, whereas the FPMR followed the PCCh's line
and laid
down its arms after the restoration of democracy in 1990.
Mainly as
a result of FPMR-A activities, terrorist attacks increased
in the
late 1980s.

Meanwhile, the security forces failed to apprehend any
members
of right-wing extremist groups, such as the Chilean
Anti-Communist
Action Group (Acción Chilena Anticomunista--AChA) and the
Nationalist Combat Front (Frente Nacionalista de
Combate--FNC). The
ability of these groups to operate with apparent impunity
led to
speculation in the late 1980s that their actions were
unofficially
sanctioned by some officials in the security forces.

The rationale for continued left-wing subversion and
right-wing
counterterror effectively vanished with the return of
civilian
government in 1990. Many left-wing extremists who had fled
the
country following the 1973 coup were allowed to return in
1990.
Nevertheless, left-wing terrorism did not disappear.
Within a few
months after President Aylwin's accession to power, the
FPMR-A and
MJL showed that they remained committed to armed struggle
and were
responsible for most of the increased number of terrorist
incidents
in the early 1990s. The total number of documented
terrorist
actions during the first year of the Aylwin government was
207
(including 148 attacks on buildings and other properties),
compared
with 465 similar actions during 1984 and 401 in 1985--two
peak
years for terrorist activity during the latter half of the
period
of military rule.

The Aylwin government's attempts to control terrorism
were
quite successful. In 1991 it expanded training and
increased
efforts by the Investigations Police and the Carabineros.
Police
improved their counterterrorism capabilities, surpassing
the
effectiveness of the military government. This was made
evident by
their success in arresting numerous leaders and in
uncovering
several safe houses and training sites used by Chilean
terrorists.
By early 1993, more than 200 terrorist militants were
under
indictment. The capture of many top leaders of the MAPU-L
and FPMRA crippled these organizations, and terrorist incidents
declined.
The Aylwin government appointed special investigating
judges to try
the more serious cases of terrorism, such as the
assassination of
Senator Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz on April 1, 1991.